Foxy

Yes!

Today I ran 7 miles. I cleaned the house. I took Chloe for two walks, and then I painted.

I worked on this little fox painting for most of the afternoon. The deer painting got a little love, and I'm still trying to come up with something to paint on this little collage I made the other day.

I think the deer painting needs something else. Like, maybe it needs some trees, or some sort of pattern going on in the background. I dunno. It's something I need to think about.

In other news, my good friend sent me her childhood stamp collection with the instructions, "For artistic purposes only."

 It's so cool. Really. I feel like I need to make something so incredibly special with them. Some of them are so beautiful, and they are from all over the world. Maybe I'll share some of my favorites soon.

a little inspiration

It has been a truly gorgeous day outside.

I was finally able to get out and enjoy it this afternoon. Chloe and I went for a nice long walk in one of the parks close to our house.

We've been having some serious wind here, and it's knocking down lots of leaves, branches and pine cones. I found these little gems along the way. I may just have to paint them...

 I also started a new painting today. I like how it's going so far.

Painting in the works!

Dark and Grey

Oh, my, it's so dark and rainy today. a good day for staying indoors and listing new items in my Etsy shop. although, not the best day for taking photos for my items. I'm going to need to re-shoot them, but at least they're up and ready to go. I feel good about that.

I listed my newest Portland postcard and also one of the small paintings from the Tilde show last month. I think the postcard really sums up the weather we're having today...

November!!

Oh my, it's already November.

Thanksgiving is 3, yes 3, weeks away! Unbelievable.

I work at a grocery store. The holidays are our busiest time of year and I am talking busy, busy, busy. It gets so busy that the lines loop around out the outer perimeter of the store. We have to line people up and assign them to registers. There are some moments where we can move our carts around to stock the shelves, so we load up hand baskets, and sometimes it's so busy we can't even navigate around the store, so we try to help out in other areas.

It's crazy, crazy, busy and most nights, when I get home, I in silence for 15-20 minutes. ah, silence.
So, that is what I have to look forward to in the upcoming weeks! :D yay!

I'm hoping to get some art made during this busy time. I did get accepted to the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Sale! So that in itself will be a very busy week for me.

The next two months are going to go by so quickly. I know the time will pass in a blink of my eye. I'd really like to take some time to enjoy the holidays. Balance... It's going to take a lot of balance.

I managed to get a couple of little bird illustrations done on my weekend! You can see one in my shop right now, and I'm hoping to get the other one listed tomorrow evening!

Two New

Two new!

I got these two new paintings listed in my shop this morning.
Still working on this Ristretto show, and I think I'm getting close to the end!

That's all I got.

Gather

I said goodbye to my paintings today.

They are on their way to Fayetteville, Arkansas. They are going to be in a show at the Fayetteville Underground starting July 7th. I hope they arrive safely. I hope they are well received. I hope they are enjoyed by people and that people are able to connect to them.

I spent the rest of my day puttering. a little of this, a little of that, trying to gather thoughts and figure out the next step. It's an ongoing part of my life, and many others too, I think.

I was able to list a new painting in my shop. It was extremely hard to difficult because it has a layer of varnish on it. It's very, very, shiny. If anyone has any tips or tricks on photographing shiny paintings, please share! :)

Hope eveyone had a wonderful Tuesday.

Paint

Hey!

I started new painting today and I'm really loving it. I almost didn't want to paint this image because I thought it would be too hard, and that I would really struggle with it.

as I was painting it I had a feeling that it would change the way I paint, and my subject matter, forever. Yes, it's a game changing kinda painting. I am so excited!

I've been struggling with the new pieces that I've been working on, but this piece really helped me figure out why exactly I'm struggling.

I discovered that I am painting way too fast. I slowed it down today and started painting very thinly. I used lots of paint thinner and built my layers up as I went. What a difference that made!

I'm also muting my colors a bit. The colors I've been using have been so bright, which I really love, but I feel like the gloomy Oregon weather has started to influence my palette. I'm so tempted to paint a room dark grey too!

Wednesday

Good day.

I had another meeting with my crafty ladies today! Littleputbooks, Cookoorikoo, Talking Squid, NoisyDogStudio, and SomaVenus :)

We all met most of the goals we had for last month. My goal was to get my greeting cards into all the New Seasons Markets, and I did it! Go me!

I also worked on my new painting today. I'm liking how well it's coming along. although, the leaves look more like potato chips in the photograph...I need to work on that!

Never Give Up

I finally got a new painting started! Go me!
I'm painting Fall leaves in Spring. Ha! Oh well. I've been wanting to paint this image for some time, now.

Boy, that garage gets cold too. I think I need to set a super space heater in there. I've also got to install some lights. It's pretty dark in there if the door isn't open...

It's going to be great once the weather gets a bit nicer. If it ever does get nicer ;)

I did my taxes yesterday and that was a huge bummer. It got me a bit down, just thinking about how hard I work, and how much I put myself into everything I do, only to get so little in return...

But, I don't want to give up. I want to keep working hard and I'm hoping that I'll be able to make these ends meet some day. "Never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up," has been my mantra the last couple of days...

anyway, I'm back in my "studio" tomorrow and I'm hoping to get another painting started!

Home

I started working from my home studio today.

It reminded me a lot of when I lived in Michigan. It was good. I liked working from home, when I lived there. It was nice. Well, aside from the loneliness...

I got a lot accomplished and started prepping new panels for new paintings. I have a show in July, in Arkansas, and I seriously need to get a move on with them. I'm hoping to have 20 new paintings by the end of May. Yeah. We'll see how this goes!

Oh Thursday

Hey!

I painted today.
Here's the proof :)

also, I am really excited about the newest Sofia Coppola movie that's coming out.
I want to paint the same way she films movies. If that makes any sense....

Funky Funk

Whatever funk I was in last week seems to be disappearing.

My bike is in the shop with a flat tire right now. I'm waiting to pick it up.
While waiting I posted a new painting in my shop.

yay!

Today was a much better day in the studio than Thursday was.
The gesso disaster wasn't as bad as I had originally thought.
I thought the surface was going to come out all lumpy and uneven, but when I arrived to work today I noticed that they weren't that bad. With a lot of sanding I got a nice surface on them

I am soaking more glue for tomorrow. I want to add a few more coats before I begin to draw and paint on them.